A district court invalidated three resource management plans that were approved by BLM's acting director because he was not authorized to approve them. The governor of Montana and the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation argued that the plans should be set aside because the court h...

The Ninth Circuit overturned a ruling denying EPA's motion to modify an injunction requiring it to promulgate a federal landfill emissions plan by November 6, 2019. The appellate court held that the district court abused its discretion in denying the Agency's request for relief because EPA promulgat...

A district court granted the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) motion to preliminarily enjoin a proposed joint venture between the United States' two largest coal producers. The Commission challenged the joint venture on antitrust grounds, arguing that it violated §7 of the Clayton Act and §5 of ...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling in a lawsuit concerning the U.S. government's and California's recovery of cleanup costs from a hazardous waste spill in the Sierra Nevada foothills that released toxic amounts of arsenic into local groundwater. Plaintiffs sued the company that had acq...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed, 2-1, a ruling in a lawsuit concerning the Trump Administration's use of military construction funds to build portions of a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. States and an environmental group challenged the Administration's authority to divert funds appropriated fo...

The D.C. Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court's dismissal of a conservation group's suit to block the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from constructing a border wall near the National Butterfly Center in southern Texas. The group argued that the Department's presence on ...

A district court dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction a lawsuit concerning an advisory committee on hunting chartered by DOI under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Nonprofit groups argued that the Department failed to properly charter the committee, failed to balance its membership t...

A district court held that William Perry Pendley was unlawfully serving as the acting director of BLM. The governor of Montana and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation argued that Pendley was unlawfully serving as the acting director in violation of the Appointments Clause, t...

The Tenth Circuit upheld a lower court ruling ordering mining and finance companies to comply with EPA's requests for information related to cleanup of a contaminated site in Utah. The companies argued that EPA exceeded its authority under CERCLA when it issued the information requests, the requests...

The Ninth Circuit vacated dismissal of a Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) lawsuit brought against the U.S. government concerning pollution from an abandoned military facility in Alaska. A resident argued that her property was contaminated by hazardous chemicals negligently released from the facility, ...